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Friday, April 23, 2010

First Line Challenge

Are you ready to get your creative juices flowing?

I'll give you the first sentence or passage of a famous novel, and your job is to turn it into a paragraph that is totally unique, and totally you!

Authors and characters are all welcome to attempt this little exercise. Let's see how many different perspectives we can create. As a bonus, try to guess the book that's being quoted.

(Incidentally, the last opener was from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Congrats to Candy for guessing it!)

Okay, are you ready? Here we go!

Lieutenant Dunbar wasn't really swallowed. But that was the first word that stuck in his head. Everything was immense. The great, cloudless sky. The rolling ocean of grass. Nothing else, no matter where he put his eyes. No road. No trace of ruts for the big wagon to follow. Just sheer, empty space...

He felt the other wagons coming up behind him and, knowing all those innocent people trusted him, swallowed his fear and urged his team onward. It was as though he plunged off the edge of the earth and he knew nothing would ever be the same - for any of them.

Sorry, Ginger. Today's been a rather hectic day - or else I would've answered you earlier. Yes, indeed-y, this is most certainly from Dances with Wolves... Normally, I try to avoid first lines and passages that mention character names, but that's not an easy task, I can assure you.